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Keep your lettuce from going limp!
True confession: Too many fruits and veggies have met a mushy fate in my crisper drawers. And that's because while I knew that the crisper drawers were the best spot in the fridge to store my lettuce and strawberries, I wasn't exactly sure how to set the fridge drawers properly to extend their lifespan.
Fortunately, I got the answers to all of my produce-protecting questions (and probably yours, too) from appliance experts, so I can keep my carrots crisp and my berries mold free for as long as possible. Read on to get the full scoop (and then head to your fridge to make a few adjustments).
Meet Our Expert
Why You Need Crisper Drawers
The regular fridge is optimized to keep food cold and the humidity low to help inhibit mold growth. But that's not ideal for everything you're storing there. "Some fresh food items—particularly produce—require more humidity and cooler temperatures than what is found in the larger compartment, and this is where crisper drawers come in," says Mattia Sala, product manager at SMEG USA.
Crisper drawers can let you make a space that's customized to what's stored there. "Crisper drawers are designed to control humidity, creating a small microclimate that slows down how quickly produce deteriorates," says Brit Angelesco, executive vice president of ZLINE. "The vent on the drawer is the key. Closed vent equals high humidity, good for produce that wilts easily. Open vent equals low humidity, better for produce that emits ethylene gas or prefers a drier setting."
How to Optimize Your Crisper Drawers
The key control on the crisper drawers allows you to control humidity levels, shifting each drawer to either low humidity or high humidity. So the first thing you need to do is sort your fruits and veggies by how much humidity they need. Here's a quick guideline to help you get started:
High-humidity produce
"This is basically anything that wilts or dries out easily," Angelesco says. Store these in a produce drawer with the vent closed.
- Leafy greens
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Carrots
- Celery
- Green beans
Low-humidity produce
These are fruits and veggies that benefit from airflow—particularly anything that produces ethylene gas, which can ripen other fruits and veggies incredibly quick (and ruin a whole produce drawer in no time flat). "These items are more prone to rotting and emit ethylene gas as they ripen—which, in a higher humidity setting could lead to the items in the drawer over ripening or rotting too quickly," Sala says. Keep the drawer vents open for these fruits.
- Apples
- Pears
- Apricots
- Avocados
- Peaches
- Plums
- Kiwi
- Melons
- Berries
Watch Out for These Food Interactions
Even within the same category, certain types of produce shouldn't be stored together, or you'll end up with a soupy, smelly mess in no time flat. Apples are an infamous and particularly potent ethylene gas producer, and can quickly wilt or overripen everything from carrots and leafy greens to avocados. (Great if you want to quickly ripen a hard avocado—not so great if you want the avocados to stick around for a while!) But there are other potential pairings that you should watch out for. "Onions and potatoes shouldn’t be stored together; they cause mutual sprouting and softening," Angelesco says.
Tips to Keep Your Produce Fresher Longer
While proper settings and proper sorting of produce will go a long way toward keeping those fruits and veggies fresh longer, there's more that you should consider when you're storing them in your crisper drawer.
Take them out of the plastic grocery bags
Keeping produce in plastic bags seemed like a good idea to avoid mess if the veggies got mushy before I used them. But I may have inadvertently been creating the conditions that led to that icky fate. "Never leave vegetables inside the crisper in their bags as this will cause them to decompose prematurely," Sala says. "If you wish to keep vegetables separate, use perforated paper bags or similar materials to do so."
Don't prewash your produce
Excess moisture is a quick ticket to mold on your produce—and a lot of wasted food. So wash them just before you use them. "Ensure everything is dry before it goes into the fridge, since excess moisture is the enemy of freshness," Angelesco says.
Avoid overstuffing the crisper drawer
If you have a lot of farmer's market bounty, consider storing some items out of the fridge drawer, rather than cramming it all in. "An overpacked drawer reduces airflow, cutting produce life by days, sometimes even weeks," Angelesco says.
Tips
Both experts say that the specialty produce bags and containers available aren't really necessary if you keep your produce drawer on the right settings. But they may come in handy if your usual grocery shopping haul doesn't fit in your produce drawer, as they can create a crisper drawer setting in the main part of the fridge. "They're essentially a more targeted version of what your crisper drawer already does," Angelesco says.
Put heavier produce at the bottom of the crisper drawer
Squishing a delicate head of lettuce isn't going to do it any favors. "Heavy and hard vegetables should be put at the bottom of the crisper and the lightweight and soft vegetables should be placed on top," Sala says.
Check your fridge drawer every few days
To avoid a major mess, give what's in there a quick eyeball every few days. "Removing anything that’s starting to turn helps keep the rest of your produce fresher for longer," Angelesco says.
Read the original article on Real Simple
